To promote and protect the civil liberties of Deaf people and their linguistic birthrights.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

AFA letter to National Geographic Society about BELL

-->

18 September 2013

John M. Fahey, Jr.,

President/ CEO

National Geographic Society

1145 17th Street N.W.

Washington DC 20036-4688

Dear Mr. Fahey,

This letter serves to express serious concerns related to how your
organization “reflects the world” through the National Geographic Live: BELL!
play.

The world of the play BELL! ignores the grave injustices that Alexander
Graham Bell has fostered upon Deaf people.It ignores his systematic attempts to deny Deaf children
sign language and efforts to “teach” Deaf people “to forget they are
Deaf.”It is acknowledged that AG
Bell was the Chief architect and advocate of the oral/aural only method of
educating Deaf students in the United States, and

Today, we know that pure oralism--the denial of a fully accessible
visual language—leads to language and cognitive deprivation as well as lags in
social-emotional and identity development.In practice, many oral/aural only programs have resorted to
physical and emotional abuse to stop Deaf children from using sign language or
gestures.

In his ‘love for the Deaf,” AG Bell consistently refused to work with
our organizations when they reached out to him.As ex-President of the National Association of the Deaf,
George Veditz wrote in AG Bell’s obituary (1922):

“ It was not
so much the education of the deaf, per se that Dr. Bell was interested in as
the oral method…The deaf as a class have had little cause to love him because
of the nature of his interference in their affairs… Dr. Bell’s influence upon
the American deaf has been negative. They would have welcomed him with open
arms and gloried in his interest in them had this interest been expressed in a
manner they could approve. He did not choose this last.‘Tis true, ’tis pity;
Pity ’tis, ’tis true.”

As
a grassroots Deaf social justice network, Audism Free America (AFA) works to
challenge the ideological foundations of audism in America---foundations that
were put into place by Alexander Graham Bell.Audism is attitudes and
practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak
and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting
in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against
Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.Sadly,
one of the legacies of AG Bell, which still “shapes the world we live in
today,” is audism.

Furthermore,
it is appalling to learn the Deaf people today are still expected to passively
accept the sanitized version of “AG Bell the genius inventor” (and what of the
plagiarism and forgery charges?) celebrated by the play, BELL!The efforts on the part of your
organization to promote the play to Gallaudet University students is a
shameless attempt to eradicate the true history of AG Bell and to minimize the
detrimental role he has played in the education of Deaf people.Are the students to forget that in 1891
during a congressional committee hearing concerning appropriation for the
college, AG Bell criticized the training Deaf teachers as “detrimental?”Are they to forget he said when
addressing Gallaudet students in the past, “…I am sure there is no one among the deaf who desires to have his
affliction handed down to his children?”

Your organization professes to “promote the conservation of the world's
cultural, historical, and natural resources” and to “care about the
planet.”Does the National
Geographic Society today, unlike its second president, care about and
appreciate the natural human biodiversity represented by Deaf individuals
globally?We call on you to celebrate
your 125 years by making a public statement to Gallaudet students as well as
Deaf people worldwide that the National Geographic Society acknowledges the
harmful history of AG Bell and today embraces the human, linguistic, economic
and civil rights of all peoples—including Deaf people.

LINKS

About Me

Questions/Comments-
Email to AudismFreeAmerica@gmail.com
Audism Free America (AFA) is a grassroots Deaf activist organization in the US, which advocates for Deaf American rights, cultural resurgence, and seeks primarily to challenge the ideological foundations of audism in America.
Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.
AFA is committed to:
1. human and linguistic rights of Deaf people
2. unmasking audism and media misrepresentation
3. advocating for future generations